Corrected Version: Environment group points to rising temperatures

Wednesday

Last year was warmer than average both in Springfield and nationwide, according to a report released Tuesday by a statewide environmental advocacy group.

Last year was warmer than average both in Springfield and nationwide, according to a report released Tuesday by a statewide environmental advocacy group.

Springfield’s average temperature was 2.3 degrees above average in 2006, and the average temperature nationally was 0.5 degrees above average at a majority of locations, the study said. The study also found that 2007 had the warmest winter to date.

Titled “Feeling the Heat: Global Warming and Rising Temperatures in the United States,” the 56-page report was complied by Environment Illinois, a citizen-based environmental advocacy group.

The report’s authors gathered data from 225 weather stations across the country and compared temperatures from 2000-2006 with “normal” or “average” temperatures. “Normal” or “average” refers to temperatures averaged over the 30-year span from 1971 to 2000, said Rebecca Stanfield, state director of Environment Illinois.

While the study’s results were obtained from stations across the country, some margin of error may be found because some stations are in larger cities than others, and some, like the one in Springfield, have moved over the years, said Jim Angel, an Illinois state climatologist for the Illinois State Water Survey.

According to the report, the rising temperature is part of a larger trend. Between 2000 and 2006, Springfield’s average temperature was 1 degree above average, while the national average was 0.5 degrees above normal at 87 percent of the locations studied. (All temperatures in the report are in Fahrenheit degrees.)

Last year, the highest temperature on a given day in Springfield was 2.7 degrees above normal, the report said.

Angel said this isn’t the first period in which temperatures rose dramatically. The same thing happened in both the 1930s and 1950s, he said.

“If you look at it statewide, 2006 was the 10th warmest year since 1895,” Angel said.

The warmest temperatures were recorded in 1998, Angel said.

He also pointed out that the rise in temperature in Illinois was smaller than in other parts of the country.

“It’s much more pronounced in the western part of the U.S.,” Angel said.

Authors of the report linked the rise in temperature to global warming. Other likely effects of global warming, they said, include more frequent droughts, floods, heat waves, water stress and forest fires.

Angel said there was an increase in precipitation over the years. A 10 percent jump occurred in the late 1960s and early ‘70s that continues today. But it’s difficult to link data on natural disasters directly to global warming, Angel said.

Stanfield said the purpose of Environment Illinois’ study was to inspire local and national politicians.

“We want to spur action,” Stanfield said. “There’s no question we have technology to tackle this problem. What we need is the political will.”

Reach Kellie Bramlet of The State Journal-Register at (217) 788-1351 or kellie.bramlet@sj-r.com.